The field of the disclosure relates generally to additive manufacturing systems and, more particularly, to methods and systems for fabricating a component using a consolidating device including multiple energy beam generators sharing lenses.
At least some additive manufacturing systems involve the buildup of a particulate material to make a component. Such techniques facilitate producing complex components from expensive materials at a reduced cost and with improved manufacturing efficiency. At least some known additive manufacturing systems, such as Direct Metal Laser Melting (DMLM), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), and LaserCusing® systems fabricate components using a focused energy source, such as a laser device or an electron beam generator, a build platform, and a particulate, such as, without limitation, a powdered metal. (LaserCusing is a registered trademark of Concept Laser GmbH of Lichtenfels, Germany.) The focused energy source device melts the particulate material on the build platform in and around the area where the focused energy source is incident on the particulate material, resulting in at least one melt pool in a process known as “scanning.” Each melt pool cools and consolidates to form at least a portion of the next layer in the build process.
In at least some DMLM systems, the laser beam or electron beam is directed across a layer of powder to sinter and melt the desired pattern in the layers of the powder bed. The typical scanning time for such systems per layer is in the range of 70-100 seconds. For certain parts, the build time requires days of processing time, at least partially due to the need to scan both simple, open areas and complex, contoured areas of a component. The time required to scan the component per layer prevents significant cost benefits associated with additive manufacturing from being fully realized. Additionally, at least some DMLM systems utilize a plurality of laser devices arranged to scan different portions of the component surface to decrease scanning times for each layer, but the energy and mechanical requirements of operating all of the laser devices decreases the cost savings and efficiency associated with the DMLM system.